This article provides a review of the putting tips and lessons in Dave Pelz's book "Putting Like the Pros."

I will say upfront that many of the tips and lessons that I read were things that I have read or heard from other resources.

That said, I read too many golf books and discuss golf whenever I get a chance. No doubt the tips and lessons in the book would benefit most.

However, this article focuses on what I thought were some of the true gems in the book.

You will come away from this article a better putter. You will likely want to purchase Dave's books as well.

Lumpy Bumpy Greens

HOWEVER, Dave's "Putting Like The Pros" book is the first place I have seen anyone explained how much these things affect your putt. According to Dave, perfectly struck 12 foot putts on greens that have had heavy traffic and are moderately cared for can miss up to 70% of the time.

What about if you are playing well kept greens before any traffic has trampled over them? Misses on perfect putts can go down to as low as 15%.

That is a huge difference. Maybe that is why you are not putting like the pro's. You may be putting on lumpy bumpy greens at your local course. If so, the pros are putting on a pool table by comparison.

Putting Tip / Lesson: Play in the morning on well kept courses if you want to putt better.

Weeble Wooble Brand New Golf Balls

Even more, did you know that the pro's will test their balls to determine if the ball is spherical and balanced.

Dave said he had some ring shaped tools to measure whether a ball is perfectly spherical. I don't know what that tool is, however. They should start selling such tools at golf stores.

Dave did clearly state how you test to see if your ball is balanced. You place your ball in an Epsom salt solution with a drop of liquid detergent. You need enough salt to make the ball float.

Spin the ball in the solution. Make a mark on the side of the ball that finishes on top. Do this again. If a different side finishes at the top, the ball is balanced. If not, the ball has a heavy side.

Very unbalanced balls will wobble violently as the spinning ball comes to rest.

Needless to say, unbalanced balls will roll offline toward the heavy side of the ball.

Golf Putting Tip: 1) Test your balls. 2) Make sure you are not putting with worn balls or dirty balls. If new balls can be unbalanced, worn and dirty balls have to be terrible.

Ball Construction Matters

This point is simple enough and would not be in the article if it stood alone.

So, what else is there? Softer covers, like balata, reduce the amount that unbalanced balls roll offline.

Putting Tip / Lesson: There you have two reasons to consider using softer cover balls. They will give you more feel on the greens and will limit the effects of unbalanced balls.

Final Notes

To that end, there are more of even those types of golf putting tips and lessons in the book. It is a good read.